Nantahala Outdoor Center in Western NC – Almost 40 Years of Rolling On The River

The Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) sits on the floor of the Nantahala Gorge in Wesser, NC, deep in the heart of the Nantahala Mountains where the Appalachian Trail crosses the Nantahala River in Swain County. Hidden in the dark recesses of the “land of the noonday sun” – a rough approximation of the Cherokee word Nantahala – NOC is a mecca for thousands of paddlers and other outdoor pilgrims. And like any true mecca, NOC is grounded in a simple and solid truth – it’s fun to be outdoors.

The success of NOC dubbed by National Geographic Adventure as, “One of the Best Outfitters on Earth,” and the “Number one vacation with a splash,” belies its rather humble, organic origins. According to Payson Kennedy, avid paddler, co-founder, two-time president and heart and soul of NOC the goal of establishing the Nantahala Outdoor Center was to find a way, “…we wouldn’t have to leave the mountains every weekend to go back to Atlanta.”

Kennedy, a former faculty member at Georgia Tech, recounted a trip to the Nantahala with paddling buddy Horace Holden back in 1971. They were gassing up at the Tote ‘n Tarry Motel for their trip back to Atlanta when Holden, off-handedly asked the owner if he might be interested in selling the Tote ‘n Tarry. Turns out…he was.

A year later Kennedy, his wife Aurelia and Holden opened the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Kennedy said it was a conscious decision to create an alternative business model and in 1976 they created an employee-owned company. Today that company sees nearly half-a-million guests a year, leads outdoor adventure trips on the Nantahala, Ocoee, Chattooga, French Broad, Nolichucky, Cheoah and Pigeon rivers in the Smoky Mountain region plus additional trips across the U.S. and in more than 20 countries around the world and pumps more than $40 million back into the Western North Carolina economy.

Branching Out

There’s little doubt that NOC is all about keeping its oars in the water but in these economic times diversity is the name of the game. The center encourages, leads and instructs hikers, bikers, orienteering aficionados, adventure racers, biathletes and triathletes. The campus in Wesser has expanded to include four restaurants; Relia’s named after Aurelia Kennedy and featuring fine fare; Slow Joe’s Riverside Café featuring soup and sandwiches and a riverside deck; River’s End Restaurant and the new Pourover, which features beer and wine and live music. NOC at Wesser also offers over night lodging in the form of cabins, the Nantahala Inn and campsites. NOC also partners with the Smoky Mountain Railroad, which has a stop at the center, to offer different railroad and paddling excursions.

NOC’s boldest new step occurred last year when it opened NOC’s Great Outpost in Gatlinburg, TN adjacent to the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 19,000 square-foot LEED certified retail space in the heart of Gatlinburg’s downtown strip is designed to catch the eye of each and every one of the 14 million or so annual visitors to the Park’s Tennessee gateway city. NOC’s Great Outpost offers top of the line outdoor equipment and apparel plus a diverse range of family-oriented guided activities. The outpost also offers a 25-foot climbing wall, a swinging rope bridge and a bear den play area for the kids.

Never Resting

Perhaps it comes from being owned by a bunch of restless grunges, but NOC is never content to rest on its laurels. The center’s 2010 whitewater expedition to Bolivia was named as one of the “25 Best New Trips” by National Geographic Adventure magazine. This trip seems to embody co-founder Kennedy’s philosophy of fun, philanthropy and adventure.

The Bolivia trip was NOC’s inaugural “Boaters without Borders” (BWB) adventure. These trips aim to bring medical aid and training to remote river communities cut off from more traditional assistance. NOC partnered with the nonprofit relief charity Medicforce in this BWB program. No doubt BWB participants felt good about their humanitarian efforts, but what’s an expedition without a little adventure? Getting there is half the fun, right? And getting there entailed seven days of class IV-V whitewater on the Tuichi River in Maddi National Park in the eastern Andes.

It’s Still About The River

NOC’s hiking, biking, photography and wilderness medicine professionals are the crème de la crème and their enthusiasm is exceeded only by their knowledge. But the mystique, reputation and allure of NOC was built on the paddle of Kennedy and the paddles of the elite boaters who call or have called Nantahala Outdoor Center home.

Kennedy caught the right wave in 1972. He and his partners opened NOC and Kennedy was a technical advisor and Ned Beatty’s stunt double in the famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, academy award nominated movie Deliverance. Despite your personal opinions regarding the merits of the movie, Deliverance was a boon to the fledgling whitewater industry. And while Kennedy’s participation in the movie may have shone a light his way, it was his paddling skills, enthusiasm for the water and commitment to sharing that attracted novices and experts alike. Kennedy was a solo open-canoe national champion six times between 1974 and 1984.

Nineteen seventy-two was also the first year whitewater paddling became an Olympic sport and John Burton, former NOC president was on the U.S.’s inaugural slalom team. Burton’s teammate Angus Morrison was a NOC head guide. Other Olympians who have worked, still work and/or train at NOC include Scott Strausbaugh and Joe Jacobi who won Olympic Gold in C-2 (two-man canoe) competition in the 1992 Olympics plus Fritz and Lecky Haller, Horace Holden, Wayne Dickert, Zuzana Vanha and others.

And the Nantahala still rolls gold through Wesser. Every spring the Bank of America US Open hits the slalom course at NOC and USA Canoe/Kayak hopefuls compete for points they hope will keep them in the running for a place on the national team. This year the hopefuls that make it to the finals will find themselves back at NOC in October for the USA Canoe/Kayak Slalom Nationals. And in September of 2013 the Canoe and Kayak Freestyle World Championships will grace the waves at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Outdoor adventure means many different things to different people. For Olympic hopefuls it can mean learning how to cut .03 of a second off you’re slalom time. For a family it can mean putting your four-year-old on the river for the first time. For an Appalachian Trail through-hiker it can mean a hot bath and a warm meal and encouragement. Whatever your outdoors expectations and/or needs are the myriad of programs and the friendly, expert, professional staff at NOC will ensure that those expectations are exceeded.

For more information on the Nantahala Outdoor Center, send your inquiries to info@southeastdiscovery.com or call 877.886.8388 and we’ll get back to you with a prompt reply.

Accesskeys

This site contains a number of keyboard shortcuts, called "accesskeys," to assist in navigating. Each Internet browser has a different method of accessing these keys:

Internet Explorer on a PC use ALT+Accesskey

Firefox on PC use ALT+SHIFT+Accesskey

Firefox and Safari on Apple or Linux use CTRL+Accesskey

Please note: Internet Explorer users may also need to hit the “enter” key to activate a link. Apple users with Spaces enabled may need to use the accesskey for Skip to the main navigation (A); then, TAB through the navigation and press "enter" to activate a link.